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Sultan Shahin, Founder-Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Sultan Shahin, Founder-Editor of this progressive Islamic website NewAgeIslam.com and President of non-profit NGO New Age Islam Foundation and its subsidiary Education for Peace, a center for preventing radicalization, established in April 2008. He has over four decades of experience in journalism, mostly writing op-eds for major Indian and international publications, specializing in Islamic theology and Muslim politics. As a human rights defender, he has been representing major international NGOs and participating in debates at the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva for over a decade. He considers Islam as a spiritual path to salvation, one of the many, not a totalitarian political philosophy to dominate the world. He founded this website, seeking to rethink Islam, in all its aspects, to adjust to the demands of changing times, and thus to encourage Ijtihad in earnest.

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

The root of the problem for the ulema lies in the stagnation in Islamic theological thought for over a millennium. Orthodox Islam had called for creative rethinking of issues as and when new situations emerged. This was called ijtihad. It was practised by jurists like Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafei, Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, etc. The gates of ijtihad, however, were closed after that. It was said that fresh thinking is no longer required. No one had the authority to close the gates of ijtihad, but ulema accepted that. This is what has caused the biggest problem. Indian ulema are perhaps the most conservative of all today. They would not even accept what their counterparts in Pakistan and Bangladesh have....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

... Now Islam is a religion being practiced only by some Indian Mullahs, so it would seem. This even amounts to declaring Shias as well as Sunni Wahhabi sects like Ahl-e-Hadith apostate because they consider triple talaq in one session as equal to only one reversible talaq.

Even stranger is the fact that AIMPLB consists of Ulema from Shia, Ahl-e-Hadith and other Salafi-Wahhabi sects as well. Why are they not protesting at being virtually called apostate groups which have “re-written Quran and forced Muslims to commit sin, altering the very essence of the religion of Islam” by a group of which they are members?

The most astounding fact in the AIMPLB affidavit is the justification it seeks for instant triple talaq from the Holy Quran. This has never been done before. Everyone knows there is no justification for instant triple talaq in the holy Quran. All protagonists of the triple talaq in one sitting have so far only quoted Ahadith (so-called sayings of the Prophet, many of them clearly weak and inauthentic, collected hundreds of years after the demise of the Prophet) and juristic rulings of companions of the prophet, or later jurists and theologians.....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

So it is good that Sufi ulema, under attack from Wahhabi militants, are coming out to denounce the Salafi understanding of Islam. But is this enough? Do they not need to ask why it’s Salafis who are winning this ideological war? Have Sufi ulema been able to bring back to the Sufi fold even a single Islamist terrorist? After all, all the terrorists of today, at least from the South Asian and African Sahel region were part of a Sufism-oriented Islam until recently. Wahhabism existed mainly in the Arab regions. There were very few Salafis anywhere else. Easy availability of petrodollars for the propagation of Salafism has certainly played an important role. But can money alone bring about this kind of transformation? Why is the Sufi counter-narrative not effective enough to make a difference?

Writing in this space, almost exactly a year ago, I had made an earnest appeal to the Sufi Ulema and Mashaikh gathering in Delhi for an international conference. I had asked them to go beyond the usual shibboleths and utilse this great opportunity to consider this most urgent question: why is the Sufi focus on positives of Islam not working? The more Sufis and other moderate Muslims denounce terrorism, the more followers this Satanic ideology finds. I had pointed out the basic reason behind this conundrum: the radical theology of violence and exclusion and the current theology of consensus of all ulema, including Sufi ulema, are by and large one and the same. Any differences are cosmetic...

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Blasphemy laws continue to be on the statute books, for instance, in Pakistan. Salman Taseer, the liberal Governor of Punjab was murdered merely because he showed compassion for a Christian lady wrongly accused of blasphemy and asked for the repeal of the blasphemy law. On the basis of this law, religious minorities can be arbitrarily accused of blasphemy and killed, either by a lynch mob or by the judiciary. No evidence is required, as that would allegedly amount to accusers being asked to blaspheme the Prophet again. Similarly, attacks on minority Hindu, Christian, Shias and Ahmadis continue under different legislations. Pakistani laws prohibit the Ahmadis from identifying themselves as Muslims.

It’s time the Council found some way to see that the countries that agree to its covenants also practice it.

Such anti-minority legislations not only violate the UN Resolution, but also Islam’s primary scripture. The Holy Quran does not prescribe any punishment for blasphemy. Nor does it permit any one to declare others kafir. It clearly says: La Ikraha fid Deen, (There can be no compulsion in religion). (Chapter 2: verse 256).

If not the UN Charter, Muslim countries should at least follow their own primary scripture, the Holy Quran.....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

As an average
Muslim understands, in Islam intention is all-important. So much so, that when
a Muslim stands up for prayer, it’s not considered enough that he is doing
everything that is done in prayer. He has to specifically state that he intends
to pray. Now read what AIMPLB’s law book says in the matter of triple talaq:

“Talaq-e-Sareeh
i.e. Talaq by using clear and plain words effect divorce whether one intends
divorce by them or not.”

It must have
been based on this that the Deobandi fatwa told a young Muslim husband that
even if you wrote the word talaq thrice in jest while chatting playfully with
your newly wedded wife online, your divorce is final and you cannot remarry her
unless your wife performs halala, that is, marries someone else, consummates her
marriage, sleeps with the new spurious husband for a few nights, and gets a
divorce from him later. Halala is the
most obscene social practice among Indian Muslims which has the blessings of
all sections of ulema....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Today the
question is: Is this pure Islam or true Islam, as Salafis claim? Not for the
first, nor for the last time, to be sure, over hundred devotees of Sufi saint
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sindh have been killed in the name of what
Salafi-Wahhabis consider true, pure Islam. Salafi-Wahhabis abhor Sufism because
they believe that Sufi practices resemble pre-Islamic polytheistic Hindu
traditions. Any Muslim who strays from the path of what Salafis consider true
Islam is an apostate and deserves to be killed. The murderer has been
brainwashed by ulema of his sect into believing that he can be assured of a
place in heaven if he kills apostates and kuffars....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

We
also need to expose the hypocrites within Islam. There are people who denounce
terrorism in public and teach in their madrasas that early peaceful and
pluralistic verses of Quran have been abrogated by the later war-time verses
asking us to kill the kafir and mushrik. Of course, war-time verses had come in
a certain context which no longer exists and so these instructions can no
longer apply to us. The first task before us is to come out of denial, accept
that our theology and jurisprudence have been corrupted and then start thinking
of changing our mindset, so that we can live as peaceful citizens of this
inter-connected twenty-first century world....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Regardless of any justification for Blasphemy laws in Muslim countries, common sense suggests that they can only be applied to Muslims. Otherwise, the term blasphemy can be stretched to mean anyone who doesn’t believe Islam to be a true religion. But anti-Blasphemy laws are applied to non-Muslims in every Muslim country that has such laws. So ultimately the question is related to whether Muslims believe in freedom of religion. Clearly many don’t, except when they live in non-Muslim-majority countries.

Although Quran, Islam’s foundational text, contains hundreds of verses asserting the legitimacy of other religions, a consensus in Islamic theology and jurisprudence has somehow emerged that other religions cannot be allowed to exist. Theologians cannot directly contradict the Quran by saying so, but this is the obvious implication of their doctrines of Jihad. Mainstream Islamic Theology and jurisprudence is completely based on a dichotomy between Muslim and Kafir. Kafirs have to be eventually eliminated from the world, either by persuasion or use of force. The only other option is they accept Muslim domination and accept the status of dhimmis (jizya-paying second class citizens).

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

As long as this Muslim-Kafir binary informs the consensus theology of
ulema, it will be difficult for Muslims to live amicably with others. Temporary
sectarian unity which could threaten permanent communal harmony is not the way
forward. As Muslims, we need to not only bridge our internal divides, but also
stop thinking in terms of Kafir and Momin. We cannot survive as Muslims in the
21st century multicultural world with our antiquated notions of supremacy and
separatism....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Denying freedom
of religion to Muslims and ex-Muslims, not to speak of non-Muslims, indeed has
a long and gory history. The Quranic dictum (2: 256) la ikraha fid Deen [Let
there be no compulsion in religion] did not leave an impact beyond the life of
Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). Forcible conversions started with the first Caliph
Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) fighting Ridda (apostasy) wars against the tribes who had
left Islam after the demise of the Prophet. They were all brought back to the
fold of Islam or killed. Similar is the case of Khwarij in the time of the
fourth caliph Hazrat Ali (RA) and beyond to neo-Khwarij today, also known as
Wahhabi or Salafi. These groups mostly
kill Muslims whom they consider “heretics” including Shias and Ahmadis....

Sultan Shahin, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, New Age Islam

Among many
factors, social, economic, political, psychological, the one common feature is
a brainwashing of vulnerable people on the basis of a supremacist, xenophobic,
intolerant, exclusivist and totalitarian Jihadi theology. This is a blatant
misuse of Islam, a spiritual path to salvation, that 1.6 billion Muslims
believe, teaches peace, pluralism, co-existence and good neighbourliness.

But there has to be a reason why jihadi
ideology has gained acceptance so quickly; why fatwas issued by reputed
moderate scholars prove so ineffective? How are Jihadis able to create a 100
percent certainty in the minds of some Muslims that violence against innocent
people, including Muslims, whom they consider infidel, will please God and lead
them to heaven?

Clearly we Muslims need to rethink some basic
features of our theology. Success of jihadism lies in the fact that, at its
core, the jihadi theology is not very different from the consensus theology of
all other schools of Islamic thought. For instance, jihadists are able to
misuse the intolerant, xenophobic, war-time verses of the holy Quran, as
Muslims believe that all verses, regardless of the context, are of universal
applicability. Indeed, the Islamic theology of consensus, taught in all madrasas,
says that Quran is uncreated, meaning that it is just an aspect of God; and so,
divine like God Himself.....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Mr. President,

While the
world’s attention is focused on violent extremism practised by a section of
Muslims, gross violations of human rights are taking place in various Muslim
societies in the name of religion. In a South East Asian country, the Arabic
name of God is monopolised by Muslims. Non-Muslims using the traditional term
Allah for God are punished. In a South Asian Muslim country thousands of Hindu
and Christian girls, many under the age of 18, are abducted, forcibly converted
to Islam, and then “married” to their abductors. In a Middle Eastern country,
courts allow marriages of as small as 9-year-old girls and force them to
consummate their “marriage” and live with their husbands. In my own country,
India, Muslim husbands can utter the word talaq, meaning divorce, thrice in a
row, and legally throw their wives out of their homes in less than a minute.

While these are
gross violations of human rights, they also amount to denigrating the religion
of Islam. All these and many other similar social evils and criminal acts
including terrorism are practiced as if they have been ordained by Islamic
scriptures. This calls for deep introspection in the Muslim community. We
Muslims should not allow our religion to be hijacked in this fashion.

Mr. President,
I would like to make a request, through you, to the representatives of Muslim
countries in the Council. Dear Sirs, Madams, Please start a serious dialogue
with theologians in your countries and ask them to open the gates of Ijtihad,
the creative re-thinking. This was not only permitted, but ordained by God, in
Islam’s primary scripture, the holy Quran, as no other Prophet was to come
after Mohmmad (saw). We Muslims must revisit our theology in the light of the
needs of the 21st century. We are not living in the 7th century and can neither
fight those early battles nor organise our societies in that medieval
fashion....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Fifteen
years after 9/11, the scourge of violent Islamist extremism has become even
more complex and deadly. The alacrity with which 30,000 Muslims from
around the world joined the so-called Islamic State’s war against humanity
has puzzled many. How could a peaceful, pluralistic religion be subverted so
easily to create inhuman monsters? Among many factors, social, economic,
political, psychological, the one common factor is a brainwashing of vulnerable
people on the basis of a supremacist, xenophobic, intolerant, exclusivist,
totalitarian, Jihadi theology.

This
is a blatant misuse of Islam, a spiritual path to salvation that teaches peace,
pluralism, co-existence and good neighbourliness. But there has to be a reason
why Jihadi ideology has gained acceptance; why fatwas issued by reputed moderate
scholars are proving so ineffective? How are Jihadis able to create a 100
percent certainty in the minds of some Muslims that violence against innocent
people, whom they consider infidel, will please God and lead them to Heaven?

Clearly
we Muslims need to rethink some basic features of our theology. Success of
Jihadism lies in the fact that, at its core, the Jihadi theology is not very
different from the consensus theology of all other schools of Islamic thought.
Jihadists misuse the war-time verses of the holy Quran, as Muslims believe that
all verses, regardless of the context, are of universal applicability. But most
damaging for Islam and useful for Jihadism is the Doctrine of Abrogation
whereby all peaceful Meccan verses are considered abrogated by the
confrontational, war-time Medinan verses. Similarly the divinity attached to
Hadith and Sharia and their universal applicability will have to be
reconsidered by mainstream Islam, and not just to defeat Jihadism, but also to
deal with many other issues including Human Rights of women, children and
homosexuals....

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

The Muslim
reaction to Javed Akhtar’s tweet can be summed up by what Khalid Yunus Ansari
wrote in Pratap of 11 September: “There has never been any dearth of
opportunists and traitors among Muslims. These people may appear intelligent
and educated but are ignorant of Muslim mores. … A real Muslim is one who
consciously and even sub-consciously believes in and follows Islamic Laws,
someone who cannot even imagine finding fault with or challenging or violating
any of them. Even imagining any fault with Muslim Laws is absolute kufr
(disbelief), not to speak of expressing such thoughts.”

I have been
reading Urdu newspapers for 45 years. While Muslims have been constantly
fighting for the so-called Muslim Personal Law which allows them to treat women
as inferior beings, never have I come across any Muslim demand for being
governed by Islamic criminal laws. If Sharia is so important, if it is such a
vital part of our faith, then why this dichotomy? Except for drinking alcohol,
punishments for all other hudud crimes (mentioned in the Quran, considered
crimes against God) are to be amputation, flogging and beheading. One would
have thought that at least those Muslims who are so particular about following
Sharia, and, of course, all ulema who consider Sharia divine would demand the
implementation of the entire Sharia. Why follow only the part that helps keep
women subjugated and avoid those that may lead to severe medieval punishments
specified by Quran and Hadees....

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Prophet Mohammad was very emphatic in his views on animal sacrifice: “if you MUST kill, kill without torture.” Unfortunately, this admonition is also ignored. The two million animals that were sacrificed in Saudi Arabia at the end of Hajj yesterday had been brought to the country in most horrible conditions, many of them dying en route.

I personally witnessed the torture animals go through when I was in Karachi on Baqr Eid, a few years ago. The whole city appeared to have turned into a slaughter house. One could hear the cries of goats and sheep for days before Eid, while they were still being traded in city squares and even in roundabouts on major arterial roads. The animals apparently knew what fate was awaiting them. It was the obscenity of the whole scene that I cannot forget. Baqr Eid, the holiest of days, had descended into an orgy of blood-letting, with the “devotion” that God requires completely missing.

The callousness we Muslims display towards animals would give the impression that the religion of Islam is indifferent to the fate of animals. In fact, Islam requires Muslims to protect, not just Human Rights, but HuqooqulIbaad or the rights of all creations of God.

HuqooqulIbaad is considered so important that it is given primacy even over Huqooq Allah or our duties towards God. While God may forgive us for our transgressions, given his Benevolent and Merciful nature, His creations will not even recognise us on the Day of Judgement. So we must fulfil our duties towards creations of God in this very world, since we cannot hope for forgiveness from them on the Day of Judgement.

Muslims should also remember the conduct of the Prophet in treating animals with kindness. On many occasions, during his journeys, he delayed prayers for the sake of first relieving the animals of their burden, and giving them food and water. He would refuse to lead prayers until animals were looked after first. He told several stories of people being forgiven all their sins for having shown consideration for a dog or a cat. According to Imam Abu Dawud, the Prophet forbade the hitting of animals on their faces and branding them. He also forbade sports based on animal fights.

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

I didn’t see you questioning the notorious
tele-evangelist Dr. Zakir Naik when he said: “all Muslims should be terrorists”
or when he said: “Quran allows Muslims to have sex with female slaves.” Indeed,
you all kept quiet when Naik made hateful remarks like the following: “People
in the west eat pork and hence behave like pigs. Pigs are the only animals in
the world that invite their friends to have sex with their partners. Westerners
also do the same.” Naik has made insulting other religions in the guise of
comparative study or interfaith dialogue his speciality. But I find almost the
entire fraternity of Muslim ulema coming out in his defence when it was
discovered that his discourse inevitably inspired several people around the
world who took to the path of terrorism.

Worst of all, you and all other ulema kept quiet
when Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi of Hyderabad asked Muslims to pray for the
Islamic State. In a press release available online he said: “Condemnation of
their (Islamic State’s) action may not be called sagacity and will be
considered against the spirit of Islam. … they have tried to fulfil the dream
of a large section of Muslims and their determination has infused a new life
into the concept of Caliphate. Their announcement (of caliphate) has surpassed
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Maulana Abul Ala Maududi’s powerful writings and
speeches about Caliphate and has realized the concept practically. …..

Sultan Shahin, Founder Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founder Editor, New Age Islam

Our focus should not be so much on Zakir Naik as on the question: why and how has he so easily succeeded in radicalising millions. Only a few of these millions may go on to join terrorism, but radicalisation of the millions is the real problem. … In my view the reason he has succeeded is that he is not saying anything new, or vastly different from what other clerics say. He is using the theology of consensus, the same theology that is taught in universities and madrasas. … That is why ulema cannot oppose him in a meaningful way. …

You cannot say in the same breath that instructions in all verses of Quran and narrations of Hadees are applicable to us Muslims even today in the 21st century and that those who are following these 7th century war-time contextual instructions in Quran and Hadees to fight and kill the combatants as well as civilians are wrong. If ulema indeed want to save the community from further radicalisation, they just have to introspect on their own hypocrisy and help evolve a new and coherent theology of peace and pluralism based on the foundational, universal verses of Quran. We will have to come out and say clearly and repeatedly that contextual verses meant for war in the seventh century are no longer applicable to us today. They have merely historical value and tell us the story of what nearly insurmountable difficulties our prophet (pbuh) had to face to safeguard the nascent religion of Islam then. Islam is no longer an infant today. It ahs grown up and found space in 1.6 billion hearts. It can very well take care of itself. Muslims n longer need to fight and kill and put terror in the hearts of so-called kuffar and mushrikeen for Islam to survive as was the case in the 7th century (C.E).

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Our focus should not be so much on Zakir Naik as on the question: why and how he has so easily succeeded in radicalising millions. Saudis and ahl-e-hadithis have only provided him logistical support. In my view the reason he has succeeded is that he is not saying anything new. He is using the theology of consensus, the same theology that is taught in universities and madrasas of all schools of thought.

His distinction is in the presentation, using modern means of communication. He is reaching those who did not have access to this theology before.

That is why ulema cannot oppose him or other militant Islamic preachers. Sufi-Barailvis and even Deobandis have tried. They are angry because he has exposed their hypocrisy. ...

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Ulema wield considerable influence. Their silences matter as much as their statements. Those who expect help from them in fighting Islamist terrorism are mistaken. The contempt with which neo-Salafists treat our ulema is well-deserved. Nor can one expect much from secular, liberal moderates. While they are implacably opposed to terrorism, and wary of living as a suspect as every Muslim is today, they are not willing to engage with the Islamist theology. This requires them to overcome the inevitable fear of violent death. Ask liberals of neighbouring Bangladesh. Not many have this level of motivation in spite of the chaos all around. As for political leaders, Muslim and non-Muslim, the less said the better. Politicians are called leaders but they actually follow the herd. Hardly any ‘leader’ is in sight.

However, one must take hope from history. Extremism has always been a part of Islamic history. But Muslims have managed to defeat it. At the moment, extremism is particularly influential, radicalising almost the entire society, largely as a result of tens of billions of petrodollars having been invested in this project over the last four decades. But the essence of Islamic spirituality, peace and pluralism, will find a way of bouncing back. To help this process, concerned Muslims will have to evolve a new theology, a theology of peace and pluralism and reach the Muslim ummah directly, over the heads of the ulema. This pluralistic theology must be based on Islam as a spiritual path to salvation, rather than a totalitarian ideology of world domination, as the current consensus dictates. Merely focusing on positive features of Islam, as some suggest, will not help. This is the age of internet. Nothing can be hidden. We will have to engage with the Islamist and neo-Salafist theology, taking, as it were, the bull by its horns. There are no soft options.

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Respected Sufi divines, I would,
therefore, earnestly appeal to you to use the opportunity provided by the Delhi
conclave to go beyond the usual shibboleths. Sufi approach of focussing on the
positive features of Islam worked well at one time. There was no internet then.
In the internet age everyone is a scholar. In this age of instant scholarship,
nothing can be hidden or bypassed.

It must be understood, that the radical
Islamist theology and the current Islamic theology of consensus are by and
large one and the same. Any differences are cosmetic. ISIS may vanish tomorrow.
But the problem of radicalisation will remain. Islam supremacism, xenophobia,
intolerance and exclusivism are inherent in the current Islamic, and not just
Islamist theology.

Focusing on positive features of Islam
is an essential part of De-radicalisation or, more realistically, Preventing
Radicalisation. But it is not bearing fruit in full measure as the core
theology agreed to by nearly all Muslims militates against these positives. As
briefly outlined above, this core and consensual theology nullifies the impact
of all arguments made against violent extremism. It is this core theology that
needs to be refuted and changed. Let us
all try and bring the core Islamic theology in line with the actual teachings
of Quran and Sunnah. Let us move away from the current theology of violence and
xenophobia. Let us move towards a coherent, comprehensive theology of peace and
pluralism, co-existence and gender justice.

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam

ISIS may be militarily defeated tomorrow and even go out of existence. But this will not solve the problem of Muslim radicalisation. If our madrasas and educational institutions continue to prepare the ground for self-segregation and militancy, expounding the current theology, mixed with narratives of victimhood and marginalisation, Islam will continue to be hobbled, Muslims will continue to struggle to fit in the way of life in contemporary world.

Moderate, progressive Muslims must urgently evolve and propagate an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, consistent in all respects with the teachings of Islam, and suitable for contemporary and future societies, while refuting the current theology of violence and supremacism.

Unfortunately, as we have seen above, the task is not so easy. Radicalisation has not just happened overnight. Jihadi theology has evolved over hundreds of years. Major theologians who have studied Islam independently have brought to us a political version of Islam, stripping the religion of all its spirituality.

While it is primarily the duty of Muslims to fight this ideological war within slam, this is no longer just a Muslim concern. The world too must confront Muslim scholars with the supremacism and extremism present in their theology and ask them to rethink Islam. ProgressiveMuslims should join the rest of the world to defeat extremism in Islamic theology.

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

While the evolution of this comprehensive and coherent theology of peace and pluralism will remain a continuing process, the already available essential elements of this theology should be brought to the Muslim masses. Since support for such a venture cannot be expected from clerics, of any hue, popular acceptance of this theology should be gained through the use of media as well as genuine grassroots movements.

Essentially, Jihadism is a Muslim problem and Muslims must tackle it. But the societies in non-Muslim majority countries can help kick-start the debate. It must be understood that a madrasa graduate who has been brainwashed into believing, as most are, that "life begins in the grave," is a ticking time bomb that should be defused with the same urgency as other bombs are. A secular government should not allow anyone to spread the poison of intolerance and xenophobia either in mosques or in madrasas. A study of what is taught in Indian madrasas, and the content of sermons delivered in mosques, is urgently required. If found intolerant, supremacist, exclusivist and xenophobic, the ulema, madrasas and imams should be confronted with them and asked to change.

Also, the least the government of India can do to ameliorate the plight of Muslim women today is to promulgate a law similar to Pakistan's Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961, with just one difference, fixing the age of marriage of girls at 18, instead of 14, as in the Ordinance. This should have been done along with reforms in Hindu personal laws in the 1950s, or at least immediately after reforms in Muslim laws in Pakistan. But better half a century late than never. Male chauvinist Indian Muslim ulema will still howl in protest. But they will not have much to say as these reforms have been acceptable to their counterparts in Pakistan and Bangladesh for over half a century. ... Muslims have to start reclaiming the Islam that the Prophet had brought and rethinking how it can be lived and practised in the vastly changed circumstances of the 21st century.

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Facing the brutalities of Islamist terror, while President Obama will not go beyond calling it violent extremism, the head of Sunni Islam's oldest seat of learning, Jamia al-Azhar admitted in a counter-terrorism conference in Mecca that extremism was caused by “corrupt interpretations of Quran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad”, and Islamic curriculums needed to change.

This call for reform, coming from Jamia Al-Azhar, is gratifying. But a half-hearted approach to reform will not work. The problems Muslims face are very basic and cannot be solved with mere tinkering with text-books. The global Muslim community will have to introspect. One question repeatedly asked, for instance, is about the contextual verses of the holy Quran that are utilised by Jihadists to brainwash our youth. Jihadists present these contextual verses as an eternal guide for Muslims.

One would imagine that the followers of Islam who believe, and many certainly do, that Islam is a religion of spirituality, peace, coexistence and tolerance, would be up in arms against the Islamic State. But while routine denunciations from some sections do come occasionally, there is no outrage visible in the Muslim society. The world cannot help noticing that while tens of thousands of Muslims come out on streets to demonstrate the moment there is an allegation of so-called blasphemy against any one, hardly any Muslim would protest at the myriad brutalities perpetrated by Islamist terrorists.

Clearly there is something wrong, some disconnect, some deeper and more complex phenomenon at work than what can be understood from a superficial look at the issue. Instead of expressing outrage, we find thousands of Muslim young men and women running from their comfortable homes, private schools and cushy jobs to fight and join in the brutalities of the so-called Islamic State. Some 12,000 Muslim young men and women are said to have joined so far from 80 countries……

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Maulana Salman Hussaini Nadvi

Note: New Age Islam is presenting below full text of a charter of demands presented some time ago to the Saudi government by Maulana Salman Hussaini Nadvi, the first Indian Muslim to embrace the self-styled khilafat of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (in translation from Arabic). It gives us an idea of how this member of al-Baghdadi Khilafat, also apparently still a holder of Indian nationality, looks at terrorism, sectarian war, the role of Saudi government and Muslim umma in general. His world view is here in full view. The worrying thing for me is that this is not just his view. There are many takers for this view. If he is promising to put together an army of five lakh (5,00,000) Muslim youth from the Indian sub-continent, essentially India, as he has no influence anywhere else, is he just making a tall claim? Only proper investigation can reveal.

The silence with which Indian Muslims have greeted the call of Baghdadi's so-called Khilafat is also quite confusing. One doesn't know if it is meaningful and revealing. One would have thought that Muslim ulema here would come out all guns blazing against this absurdity of a medieval khilafat in the 21st century. Instead, there is no protest even when an influential Maulana joins the Khilafat. The Sufi ulema and mashaikh that New Age Islam correspondents interviewed are quite categorical in their condemnation but they have got little influence now. Most Muslims have already developed a radical Wahhabi mindset, even though some of them continue to go to Sufi shrines and do not even realise it yet. Power of the petrodollar-funded Islamic mass media, you can say.

Let me just give you a rough and very brief idea of Nadvi's world view here. In this charter of demands, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadvi, he is asking Saudi Arabia to organise a Khilafat for the Muslim umma, the global Muslim community, which would have a world Islamic Army in which he would contribute five lakh Muslim youth from India. He says there is no need for recruiting youth from among the messed up youth of the Gulf, when you can find them right here. This army would stand behind Muslims wherever they are in trouble. He wishes that terrorists should not be called terrorists and thus antagonised. They are sincere Muslim youth fighting for a noble cause. There should be a confederation of Jihadi organisations active across the Islamic world midwifed by Ulema who should help them hold a dialogue among themselves so they come together and iron out their differences and emerge as one powerful global force.

Let me quote to you his exact words, though in translation from Arabic. (A picture of the original letter in Arabic is given below) Syed Salman Hussaini Nadvi says: "as for the issue of Qadiyanis particularly Safvids and those who abuse the Sahaba (companions of the Prophet - meaning Shias), we should not be afraid of them and we do not need to go to the US or Israel to ward off threats from them. Just recruit the Ahl-e-Sunnah youth from the Indian sub-continent and form a powerful Muslim army of the Islamic world. After that there will be no need of the so-called army of the sick youth of the Gulf States. If you are sincere towards the True faith, True path, Sunnah and for the protection of the true path of Islam, then simply make an appeal, a call. Five lakh brave youth from the Indian sub-continent will be provided."

Maulana Nadvi says: "Since the land of Kaabah is the beating heart of the entire Muslim community and is the centre of the Islamic world, the holy Prophet (pbuh) had said about it, 'Drive out the Christians and the Jews' (from Arabia) and had decided that this land is a sacred land for the entire Muslim Ummah and so there is no room here for the Christians and the Jews in the same way there is no room for Muslims in Vatican.

"Therefore this is the responsibility of the government of the Aal-e-Saud (to drive out the Christians and the Jews from Arabia and establish such a nation which will have no non-Muslims)."

He also says: "Military training among the Muslim youth should be stressed. Every effort should be made to save them from Freedom and social ills."

We Indians have a peculiar problem to deal with. The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi had vociferously supported Muslims having double loyalties, extra-territorial loyalties to an Islamic Khilafat, the Ottoman Empire, then based in Turkey. Now that Gandhiji's party is not in power, maybe the government will put its foot down and say that those who are loyal to al-Baghdadi's Khilafat will no longer be Indian citizens. They will not be allowed to recruit here for the proposed global Islamic Army. --- Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

By Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam

In our previous editorial, we had expressed our sense of relief that Abu Bakr Baghdadi’s caliphate has been accepted by only terrorist organisations in Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria and the religious scholars of the world, especially the Egyptian Islamic scholar and mufti Yousuf Al Qaradhawi had rejected Abu Bakr’s claim to be the caliph of the Muslims of the world as null and void and un-Islamic. But to our utter shock, we have come to know through a news report published in the front page of Urdu daily Aag of Lucknow that one of the renowned Islamic scholar and great grandson of Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi has congratulated Abu Bakr Baghdadi on being appointed as the caliph of Muslims and has prayed for his well being and safety. In a letter written to Baghdadi which is available on What’s App, he has showered praises on his valour and religious zeal with which he has taught a lesson to the tyrant ruler Nuri Al Maliki. In his two page letter, Maulana Salman Nadvi has addressed Abu Bakr Baghdadi as Ameerul Momineen and has praised Abu Bakr Baghdadi for establishing the much desired Islamic Caliphate......